The Seductive Sway of Power
by taintedevil266
Summary: Set in Harry Potters 6th year. Harry, devastated over Sirius's death, vows to become more prepared to face Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and keep his friends safe. But just how far will Harry go to defeat the inevitable threats that Harry will face during his 6th year? Will he go so far as to look at learning Dark Magic? How will he cope when he gets his first taste of power?


The Seductive Sway of Power

**A/N Hi! I hope you enjoy this fanfic, it's my first! :) I apologizes in advance if I make any grammatical error, and if this idea's been done to death already...I had an idea and I just needed to get it out of my system! Hopefully I can provide a new take on an old idea, at the very least. Any helpful, and/or well meaning criticism is welcome! **

Harry Potter was running through the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mystery's, desperately looking for his Godfather, Sirius Black. He was panting, sweat dripping from his forehead and he screeched to a halt, trying to think through the thick fog of panic in his mind. There were two doors to chose from. Which door led to Sirius?

* * *

Harry's mind was racing. He realized that he had been tricked. Voldemort must have planted the dream in his mind...Snape had warned him this might happen. Why hadn't he listened? Even if Snape was working for Voldemort, it was good advise.

"Just give us the Prophecy and no one needs to get hurt" Lucius Malfoy said coolly. Why did Voldemort want this prophecy so badly? He heard Ginny shift behind him. He should give the prophesy over to the death eaters, get everyone out safely. He had no guarantee the death eaters would keep there word, but he had to try and keep his little group safe. It would be his fault if anyone was harmed, and he knew couldn't deal with that guilt.

But he couldn't let the Death Eaters get want they wanted easily. He was too stubborn for that.

"Yeah right!" He said "You'll let us skip of into the sunset will you? Anyway, if Voldemort wants this Prophecy so bad, I don't think it's in my best interest to hand it over to you!"

Lucius snarled something, but it was drowned out by Bellatrix screaming "YOU DARE TO SPEAK HIS NAME YOU FILTHY HALF-BLOOD?! _CRUCIO_!" "NOW!" Harry cried, dodging the curse and pointing his wand at a shelf full of prophecy's. "_REDUCTO_!" Harry and his friends shouted.

* * *

Harry, Hermione and Neville raced into a small, dark, cluttered office, two death eaters in hot pursuit. Slamming the door shut, Hermione began "_Collo_-" but the door burst open before she could finish, and the two Death Eaters charging into the room. "_IMPENDIMENTA_!" The Death Eaters shouted triumphantly. Harry, Neville and Hermione were blown of their feet, the back of Harry's head hitting the stone wall. One of the Death Eaters stared shout out their location, but Hermione silenced him with a quick "_Silencio_!" Harry quickly pointed his wand at the second Death Eater. "_PETRIFICUS_ _TOTALUS_" He shouted. The Second death Eater's limbs snapped together and he fell to the floor, like a wooden plank. "Well done Harry-" Hermione started, but was cut of by the first Death Eater, who had silently sent a curse resembling a purple flame towards her. "Oh!" She exclaimed, and then crumpled to the ground. _Oh no, please don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead, don't let her be dead_ Harry panicked.

* * *

"Is that the best you can do!" Sirius yelled. Bellatrix's next spell hit him squarely on the chest. Harry started running towards him, drawing his wand as he went, but he wasn't fast enough. Sirius seemed to fall in slow motion, his body arched gracefully as he fell backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch. He didn't emerge on the other side.

"SIRIUS!" Harry screamed, still running towards the dais. He felt Lupin restrain him, heard him say "There's nothing you can do, Harry...nothing...he's gone"

It was with these words that Harry Potter woke up.

* * *

Harry sat bolt upright in his bed, sweating as if he had just run a mile. He stayed like that for a minute, slowly calming his breathing and reflecting on the dream. It was not the first of it's kind, but it never lost it's effect on him. He shuddered when he remembered Hermione getting hit by that curse. They were lucky the death eater didn't cast a more permanently damaging one. In fact they were all lucky to have gotten out of the ministry alive. They were woefully unprepared, and outnumbered. If the Order and Dumbledore hadn't arrived, Harry was sure there would have been more life threatening injury's. If he was honest to himself, he would concede that more people would have died if help hadn't arrived. But he couldn't quite admit that to himself just yet.

Trying not to think about how Sirius's death rested on his shoulders, Harry layed back down and tried fruitlessly to get back to sleep. But Lupins words swirled around in his mind "_nothing more you can do...nothing..._" if only he hadn't been in such a rush...if only he'd stopped and thought for a moment, listened to Hermione and common sense...

He sat up and sighed, realizing sleep was impossible now. He glanced at the alarm clock, groaning when it read _03:12. _ This was gonna be a long night.

He automatically started thinking about the ministry fiasco of a few months back, how it never would have happened if only Voldemort hadn't put that damn dream in his mind. _If only I had actually tried to learn Occlumency_ the unbidden voice inside his head whispered _Sirius wouldn't be dead._

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but realized the voice-he-was right. He could have prevented this. He could have prevented Sirius from dying.

He quickly moved on from that train of thought.

_If I had known a basic healing spell, Ginny and Neville would have been more able to defend themselves after the Death Eaters injured them. _Was the next unpleasant thought to cross his mind. Ginny could barely walk with her broken ankle, and Neville had been unable to cast spells, because his broken nose had affected his pronunciation.

_Hang on there, _Harry thought _It might have taken a complex healing spell to fix broken bones. I don't need to add anymore blame onto myself, particularly if it is unfounded/unrealistic. _Harry felt a little better at that, but couldn't forget his concerns. So he decided to do something definitively Hermione Granger-esque. He picked up the nearest magical book that he thought might have some useful healing spells in it, and started reading until dawn.


End file.
